I think you're right. At American universities I've been around, lots of alumni with grey hair seem to remember a bunch of fun sounding singalong songs for football games, including (in Louisiana) some weird Cajun? lyrics. It'd be awesome to gob down beers and belt out toons. I think my voice is beautiful after I have a few.
Mine too. I used to play in bar band in my local pub (in Ireland), the whole pub would be on their feet singing along by the end of the night. Most fun I've ever had in a pub
Shanties continue to be a mental-health pillar since I became a parent. While I barely played Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, I was impressed by the music and learned many of those chanteys to sing while pushing the stroller or walking to work. Something I heard on NPR around 2010 said when times are tough (2008 recession) we tend to listen to music with a steady beat and no surprises.
My wife and I almost went to a pub in St. Paul, MN for their monthly shanty night but opted not to because of a statement on their webpage to the effect of “if you can’t sing in tune, we don’t want you.” One of the best things about Concordia Language Villages is the use of song to get everyone forming the sounds; no one is singled out, and it really lowers the barrier to trying. Some other cultures expect everyone to sing, doesn’t matter how “good” because it’s something we do together and it is healthy. Together we’ll improve.
There's just something about having a group of people singing that is just so appealing to me and I just can't put my finger onto why but I think it has something to do with the social side of it.
> There's just something about having a group of people singing that is just so appealing to me...
If you like The Longest Johns, check out Port Isaac's Fisherman Friends. Similar large vocal group.
I can tell you why I like a lot of those groups: It's people who can sing, singing. No autotune, no filters, no massive audio processing pipelines. I've heard plenty of groups like that at festivals over the years, and they tend to sound just like they do on the album (for good or for bad - Gaelic Storm's live shows have no energy to them, they're just performing the album).
My recommendation is the Dreadnoughts. "Roll Northumbria" is an old style shanty about a modern day oil tanker. Hands down best introduction to the group. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-d3XHQVMHDM
This may be my best and only opportunity to share my favorite sea shanty band with any wider audience. I suspect I only discovered them because YouTube has me in a geo-bubble and they're local to here.
Monday night shanties at the Gris are great! Years ago, friends and I made it a weekly habit to drive the 45-50 minutes up to Essex on Monday nights. I'm glad that they're planning on making a comeback after COVID and put it on my list of things to do when it's safe, but now I'm wondering if they're going to be even more crowded.
I need to figure out how to get Spotify to grasp that just because I like sea shanties, I would rather not have that stuff randomly show up in the "generated mixes." I've discovered plenty of great groups by just letting stuff auto-play after an album, but I do have kids, and I'd rather they not learn about "Christopher Columbo" from this album... even if it's probably more true than most histories.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49FWp7WLYKw